Chiron:
Heart Warrior & Inner Alchemist
Experiential Workshop: 2-5 pm, Sept 23rd, 2023
with Hugh Smiley. Hosted by Astrology Toronto.
A hybrid event with options to attend on-site or via Zoom.
Chiron’s Healing Journey: transmuting the darkness of the
core wound into the golden light of courage, freedom and joy.
A new vision required of this evolutionary period in global humanity is that of Unity. Shaman-Teacher Chiron helps us know our several parts (sometimes hurt or broken), then get them communicating & integrating for the mending process towards that unity. The Heart Chakra is the Sun in our personal solar system. As the latter is to our Sun (whose service Chiron assists) so is the Sun to the great Sirius star system. So Chiron is Messenger from the light within grounded matter (horse) as well as the galaxy (human flame of consciousness). The rider connects heaven and earth, psyche & soma and is the Transcender of Duality.
The Wise Centaur, Chiron embodies archetypes that mentor us to …
• Identify our personal pain, suffering & the underlying trauma conditioning so many aspects of our lives – attitudes, psychological beliefs, work, health & relationships.
• Understand patterns deriving from these core wounds we have all received,
• Hold the perception in our consciousness, embracing the reality of its direct experience.
• Through awareness of, acceptance & compassion for our inner child, transmute the wound into healing medicine for the benefit of ourselves and others.
• In this function, Chiron is a Boddhisatva and teaches us how to be one too.
Awareness of new Chironic archetypes is growing. The astronomical body, orbiting between Saturn & Uranus, discovered only in 1977 reflects wisdom into evolving human consciousness & planetary initiation. Fueled by analysis of thousands of charts, this accumulates with each passing year.
The workshop will be experiential. Please prepare by finding the sign & house where Chiron manifests in your own natal chart & read a little online re these placements.
The format: short talks on principles & archetypes, including those within Chiron’s mythological presence, followed by an exercise (possibly in small groups) in mindfulness exploring an archetype, e.g. Sacred Warrior, Wounded Healer, Rainbow Bridge, Shaman, Alchemist. There will be 10-15 minute break near midpoint.
Invited to contribute to a new book on the Centaurs “Sideways from Saturn” to be published this Fall (now on pre-order), I will share some perspectives from the chapter “Being Chiron”.
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Check-in with your sacred healing journey
through a session with astro-coach Hugh Smiley
The symbolic language of the Earth, Sun, Moon, planets & stars plays out in real lives clearly demonstrating the validity of the astrological model as a means of understanding ourselves both individually and collectively.
Individual Astro-Coaching Session
After an optional, free 15-minute phone or zoom consultation, you can book a 45- or 90-minute live, online astro-coaching session. We can look at how your essential nature, both from the personality & soul perspectives is unfolding though your life journey, along with the challenges as well as the gifts. The latter provides keys to healing, transformation and fulfilment.
Rather than a pre-recorded “reading”, an astro-coaching session evolves within the context of a live authentic dialogue including somatic mindfulness-based, self-inquiry through the exquisite language of symbols flowering throughout the fertile garden of your birth chart and your heart. Clients participate experientially with short exercises in mindfulness, visualization & conscious sounding designed to enhance the learning and growth, anchoring the latter in the body. Along with the natal chart, we might also work with transits, ‘intercepted signs’, progressions and heliocentric charts.
Please email to make an appointment,
then register & pay at the bottom of this page.
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A wee bit of my astro-history:
My name is Hugh. I grew up in a very small town on Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada and have travelled the world (some bio info: here).
Having devoured Alice Bailey’s “Esoteric Astrology” in 1972-3, was a corresponding student of the Buenos Aires branch of the Arcane School while living in Paraguay in the late 70s.
During the 80s I read lots, drew up charts and attended classes & conferences. In the 90s, was active with an online group (including Melanie Reinhart & Zane Stein) studying the astronomy and co-creating the emerging astrology of Chiron & the other Centaurs as they were discovered in our solar system.
Put the books away for 20 years. 6 years ago was drawn back into this wonderful world, pleased and surprised to experience a whole new depth of resonance and understanding through my own & others’ natal charts.
I bring various resources into a session with a client. Having practiced and taught the Hakomi Method of somatic psychotherapy for 35 years, am familiar with character typology & psychological belief systems. Having developed, since childhood, the Korason Method for Authentic Voice & Dialogue, there is access to a system combining intention, sound production, movement, visualization & the chakras to deepen new ‘neural pathways’ in consciousness – a powerful vehicle to bring the astro-chart to life. With Sun, Saturn & Pluto conjunct in Leo and Midheaven in Sagittarius, am developing a form of Agni (‘fire’ in Sanskrit): Yoga of the Heart & Yoga of the Future.
Graduating in Peace & Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto, I’ve been deeply engaged in creating experiential community learning and practice of Authentic Dialogue for more effective decision-making, resolution of conflicts and healing of trauma. Am also a bodyworker and know well, after 42 years practicing, how trauma, psychological beliefs, and of course the planets & stars dwell in the soma (we are stardust, connected with remote galaxies as well as our own solar system).
I have a special interest in the centaur Chiron as a symbolic agent for the deep change individual & societal consciousness is undergoing during these challenging times. People are more ready now to work with the unconscious and the shadow. Chiron can be a most excellent warrior-shaman-healer-messenger to accompany and illumine this journey of awakening and transformation of core wound ino medicine.
I’m honoured to have contributed the chapter, Being Chiron, to an anthology on the Centaurs, focussing on the Hero and Sacred Warrior archetypes. Sideways From Saturn is now on pre-order, and will be published this summer (2023).
My colleague Adela Dumitriu & I created a short video called
Chiron: Windhorse Messenger.